Part 9

Salt lakes without outlet occur in each, and salt efflorescence often covers the ground. A lack of rain to wash from the soil substances injurious to vegetation, and supply the water necessary for the growth of plants, leaves these plateaus generally sterile, and some of the most extensive are in part, if not wholly, deserts.

MOUNTAINS AND THEIR STRUCTURES

Mountains rise in long and comparatively narrow lines or ridges, the tops of which are often deeply indented, presenting to the eye the appearance of a series of peaks detached one from another. As each of these peaks or distinct elevations is called a mountain and often receives a separate name, the common designation chain or range of mountains is naturally applied to the whole.

The top of the ridge, from which the waters descend on opposite sides, is called the crest; and the notches between the peaks, from which transverse valleys often stretch like deep furrows down the slopes of the chain, are called passes.

HOW MOUNTAIN CHAINS FORM SYSTEMS

Mountain chains are seldom isolated, but are usually combined into _systems_, consisting of several more or less parallel and connected chains, with their intervening valleys,--as the Appalachian system, the Alps, and the Andes.

Most mountain chains seem to have been produced by tremendous lateral pressure in portions of the Earth’s crust, causing either long folds, or deep fissures with upturned edges rising into high ridges, the broken strata forming ragged peaks.

TWO TYPES OF MOUNTAIN CHAINS

Mountains by folding are generally of moderate elevation, while mountains by fracture include the highest chains of the globe. The Appalachian Mountains in North America, and the Jura in Europe, are examples of the first; the Rocky Mountains, Andes, Alps and Himalayas, of the second.

Folded mountains are curved into long arches, either entire or broken at the summit and forming a system of long, parallel ridges, of nearly equal height, separated by trough-like valleys. Here and there, however, deep gaps, or gorges, cut the chains allowing the rivers to escape from one valley to another.

In systems of mountains produced by fracture, there is usually one main central chain, with several subordinate ranges. They have, however, less regularity and similarity among themselves than the parallel chains of mountains by folding.

The crests are deeply indented, cut down one-third or one-half the height of the range, forming isolated peaks and passes which present to the eye the appearance of a saw, called in Spanish Sierra; in Portuguese, Serra. Such ranges are frequently distinguished by these terms, as the Sierra Nevada, in North America; and the Serra do Mar, in Brazil.

HOW VALLEYS ARE FORMED

Valleys among mountains owe their existence primarily to folds or fissures in the Earth’s crust, produced in the upheaving of the ranges; but they are subsequently deepened, widened and otherwise changed in form and extent, by the action of rains and frosts, and the streams to which they furnish a pathway. Most of the Alpine lakes, celebrated for their picturesque beauty, occupy deep basins at the outlet of transverse valleys.

Valleys in plains and plateaus are mainly, if not entirely, the result of the erosion, or wear of the surface, by running water.

Little rills, formed by the rains or issuing from springs, set out on their course down the slope of the ground, each wearing its small furrow in the surface. Uniting they form a rivulet which wears a broader and deeper channel; and the rivulets in turn combining, form rivers which produce still greater effects.

The great basin of the Mississippi for example, is one grand central valley, cut by the main stream in the line of lowest level, towards which the valleys of the Missouri, the Arkansas, the Ohio, and a multitude of smaller streams, all converge.

[Illustration: =CELEBRATED MOUNTAIN PEAKS THAT STAND AS THE EARTH’S GREATEST SENTINELS=

1. MOUNT EVEREST, the loftiest mountain in the world, is situated in Nepal, India, and rises to an ascertained height of 29,000 feet--almost six miles. It was named for Sir George Everest, an English engineer, and outline Surveyor-General of India. Everest is only one of numerous gigantic peaks of the Himalayas--often called the “Roof of the World”--and is apparently guarded against all attempts at ascent by a rampart of lofty pinnacles. It is best viewed from a point near Darjeeling, India, one hundred and twenty miles distant. From this point travelers are enthralled with the glistening peak of mountain piles as nowhere else on earth. Though a thousand times described, the view is so surpassingly sublime that its full glory can never be depicted in words.

2. MONT BLANC (_mòn-blon-g_) is the highest mountain in Europe, and of the Alps. It is located between Great and Little St. Bernard passes, on the frontier of France, Switzerland and Italy; and is best seen and approached from the village of Chamounix (_shä-mo-nē´_), France. It was first ascended in 1786, but frequently since, and, in 1893, an observatory was built on its summit. The Mont Blanc chain is famous for glaciers. Many great poets have described the majesty of Mont Blanc, among them, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, and Coleridge.

3. THE MATTERHORN, or Mount Cervin, a splendid mountain obelisk, towers above Zermatt, Switzerland, on the Italian border. The eastern side seems almost vertical, and its ascent is very difficult; hence its name which is due to the formation of the rocky, horn-shaped peak. The loss of life attending its ascent has given the Matterhorn the grim name “Fatal Mountain.”

4. MONTE ROSA (_mŏn´te rō´sa_), “rosy mountain,” is next to Mont Blanc, the highest Alpine peak. It is the border between Italy and Switzerland, sixty miles north of Turin, Switzerland. Unlike the Matterhorn, Monte Rosa is easy of ascent and is frequently climbed by ladies. Its name refers to the glaciers which abound and reflect beautiful colors.

5. JUNGFRAU (_yung´frau_), “virgin,” is one of the Bernese Alps, Switzerland, thirteen miles from Interlaken. It is so named from the pure whiteness of its snowclad peak. A wonderful mountain railway now reaches to the summit, most of the line being through tunnels. Jungfrau is 13,670 feet high.

6. MOUNT ELBURZ is one of the loftiest and most impressive of all the Caucasian mountains. It is an extinct volcano with two peaks, the western peak 18,470 feet above sea-level, and the other 18,347 feet. It is covered with glaciers, and constitutes a watershed which divides Asia from Europe. The Caucasus gave its name to that great branch of the human race that has ruled the world for many generations.

7. MOUNT SINAI (_si´nā_ or _-nī_), famous as the sacred mountain on which Moses received the Ten Commandments, is an individual peak in a vast rocky mass that almost fills the peninsula of Sinai between the Gulf of Suez and Gulf of Akaba. It is named from _Sin_, the Babylonian moon-god. At its foot, in a ravine, is the monastery of St. Catherine, founded by the Emperor Justinian; a short distance from it the Chapel of St. Elias (Elijah); while on its summit is a little pilgrim church. Its height is 8,593 feet.

8. PIKE’S PEAK. This famous mountain is six miles from Colorado Springs, Colorado, and may be ascended by a cog railway. It is one of the best-known summits of the Rocky Mountains, and rears its snowy crest to a height of 14,134 feet. On its top is one of the highest weather stations in the world. The view from the observatory is superb, embracing thousands of square miles of mountain and plain.

9. MOUNT ST. ELIAS, on the Alaskan side of the Canadian frontier, was long considered the highest peak in North America. It is a volcanic mountain, stands in a wild, inaccessible region, and is clothed almost from base to summit with eternal snow. Besides, there are huge glaciers, impassable precipices and yawning chasms. Its height is 18,020 feet. It was ascended by the Duke of the Abruzzi in 1897.

10. MOUNT ASSINIBOINE (_as-sin´i-boin_) is frequently called the “Matterhorn of the Canadian Rockies”. It is 11,860 feet in height, and is located near the boundary of British Columbia and Alberta, about twenty miles south of Banff, in one of the most beautiful scenic regions in America. In the immediate vicinity there are geysers, caves, waterfalls, numerous lakes, natural bridges, and glaciers.

11. MOUNT POPOCATEPETL (_pō-pō-kă-tā-pet´l_) is one of the giant volcanic peaks standing guard over Mexico City. Its summit is perpetually covered with snow, but it may be ascended from Popo Park, the terminal of the railway which climbs its slope, to a height of 8,000 feet. The peak itself is 17,887 feet, at the apex of which is a huge crater sheathed with ice, from which clouds of vapor are continually ascending. No great eruption, however, has taken place since 1540. The most imposing spectacle of all from the summit is the remarkable formation of clouds below.

12. MOUNT SALCANTAY, one of the most beautiful peaks of the Andes, in Peru, is 21,000 feet in height. Its grandeur is enhanced by the presence of glaciers and the enveloping clouds. It rises to a sharp point with its sides covered with snow and ice, and lifts its head magnificently thousands of feet higher than the surrounding mountains. It has been recently explored by the Yale University expedition.

13. MOUNT ROBSON, the highest point in the Canadian Rockies, reaches an elevation of 13,700 feet. It is on the border between Alberta and British Columbia, one of the remarkable “show places” of the Canadian Rockies. All around it is the finest of scenery--huge mountains, snow-crested peaks, rushing rivers that swirl and foam, mysterious canyons and earth-strewn boulders.

14. MOUNT RAINIER (_rā´ner_) an isolated mountain of the Cascade Range, forty miles southeast of Tacoma, Washington, is an extinct volcano, 15,529 feet in height. There are still two craters at the summit which give off heat and sulphurous fumes. Thick forests cover the lower region of the mountain, while higher up there are fourteen glaciers. It is difficult of ascent, though frequently made. A bridle path leads to a point over 7,000 feet in elevation from which a magnificent view of several of the glaciers may be had.

MOUNT ARARAT, famed as the mountain where Noah’s ark landed after the flood, as recorded in Genesis, is in the Turkish province of Armenia. Ararat is really a twin mountain, the two peaks of which are about seven miles apart, with an elevation of about 17,000 and 13,000 feet, respectively. They rise above a beautiful alluvial plain, and quite naturally the higher peak--Great Ararat--is the one made historically immortal as the motherland of the human race. From their isolation and bareness the two peaks are very impressive, and it is little wonder that Armenia regards these mountain tops as a crown of glory and all other lands as her daughters. Within her borders, too, she gives rise to the beautiful rivers Euphrates, Tigris, Pison, Araxes, and many others. The first modern ascent of the mountain was made in 1829, though often since.]

REMARKABLE CANONS OF THE ROCKY MOUNTAIN PLATEAUS

Wonderful examples of valleys by erosion occur in the plateaus adjacent to the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Canon of the Colorado, three hundred miles long, has a depth of from three thousand to six thousand feet below the surrounding country. The sides of this tremendous gorge, which are nearly or quite precipitous, exhibit the successive geological strata down to the oldest rocks. A similar formation exists in the upper course of the Yellowstone, one of the main tributaries of the Missouri, and to a less extent in all the streams flowing through the high barren plateaus.

Valleys descending the slopes of mountains are formed in the same manner. The gathering drops make the rill, and the rill its little furrow; rills combine into rivulets, and rivulets make a gully down the hill-side; rivulets unite to form torrents, and these work with accumulating force, and excavate deep gorges in the declivities. Other torrents form in the same manner about the mountain ridge, and pursue the same work of erosion until the slopes are a series of valleys and ridges, and the summit a bold crest overlooking the eroding waters. The larger part of the valleys of the world are formed entirely by running water.

ISLANDS OF THE WORLD

The multitude of small and apparently fragmentary bodies of land, called islands, form only about one-seventeenth part of the entire land surface of the globe.

CONTINENTAL AND OCEANIC ISLANDS

Continental islands are situated in the immediate vicinity of the continents, and form properly a part of the continental structure. They have the same kinds of rocks and mountain forms, and the same varieties of plants and large animals, which are found on the neighboring coasts of the mainland.

The size of this class of islands varies extremely. Some are mere isolated rocks, while others occupy large areas, like the British Isles, Japan Islands and Madagascar; or, more extensive still, Papua and Borneo, each of which has an area exceeding two hundred thousand square miles.

The distinctive character of Oceanic islands is that they lie at a distance from the continents, in the midst of the ocean basins. They are always small, and, though sometimes forming lines, or bands, they more frequently occur in groups.

The rocks which make up the body of the continents and continental islands--sandstone, slate, granite, and the various metamorphic rocks--are entirely wanting in oceanic islands. The latter are composed either of volcanic substances, or of limestone. Hence they present much less variety in relief forms than the continental islands.

FORMS OF VOLCANIC ISLANDS

The islands of volcanic origin are more or less circular in outline; are usually considerably elevated, with rapid slopes; and are of moderate size. Sometimes two or more volcanoes, clustered together, form a single island of larger size and more irregular outline.

Occasional islands rise but little above the surface of the sea, their craters being filled by sea water. Many, however, rise to Alpine heights--like the peaks of Hawaii, in the Hawaiian Islands, nearly fourteen thousand feet in elevation; Pico de Teyde, in the Canaries, fourteen thousand feet; and Tahiti, in the Society Islands, over seven thousand feet above the level of the sea.

WONDERFUL STRUCTURE OF CORAL ISLANDS

Coral islands are among the most striking phenomena of the tropical seas. Whitsunday Island in the midst of the Pacific is an excellent example. Rising but a few feet above the surface of the ocean, it forms a narrow, unbroken, nearly circular ring, surrounding a central lagoon of quiet water. When first seen, it presents the aspects of an angry surf breaking on a white beach of coral sand, in strong contrast with the deep blue color of the sea. Behind this a garland of luxuriant vegetation, whose tropical beauty, enhanced by the noble cocoa-palm encircles the quiet waters of the lagoon, while all around spreads the broad blue sea.

=TWO OF THE GREATEST MARVELS OF LAND AND SEA=

[Illustration: =THE GRAND CANYON OF THE COLORADO RIVER, ARIZONA=

This greatest of nature’s gorges is more than twelve miles across, a mile deep, and extends over two hundred miles in length. This whole vast space has been sculptured by the wear of the river through countless centuries. Its unparalleled magnitude, its architectural forms and suggestions, and its wealth of color effects create a picture that is grand beyond description.]

[Illustration: =THE BARRIER CORAL REEF OF AUSTRALIA=

This vast reef of coral islands was built by a colony of coral insects, or polyps, as innumerable as the stars of the Milky Way. It rose from the floor of the ocean, builded out of myriads upon myriads of the dead skeletons of these marvellous insects.]

COMBINATION OF VOLCANIC AND CORAL ISLANDS

A large number of volcanic islands in the Pacific are encircled by coral reefs, which, when near the shore, are called fringing reefs. When at a considerable distance, leaving a lagoon of quiet water between them and the volcanic island, they are termed barrier reefs.

CORAL REEFS AND THEIR BUILDERS

Coral reefs are masses of limestone originally secreted, in the form of coral, by minute polyps which live in countless numbers in the tropical seas. The coral produced by a single community of polyps grows chiefly upward; but multitudes of distinct communities often live so near together that the small lateral growth of each brings them into contact.

Their separate, fragile structures, gradually broken up and compacted by various means, are in time transformed into a solid mass, forming walls of coral rock frequently of enormous extent. The great barrier reef near the northeastern shores of Australia, the longest known, is not less than one thousand two hundred and fifty miles in length.

[Illustration: =A LIVING SINGLE CORAL FROM THE PACIFIC OCEAN=

The coral polyp is one of the master-builders of the world. It may be likened to a sea-anemone, but is inferior in muscular organism, and immensely superior in defensive organization.]

Reef-building polyps do not live below the depth of one hundred or one hundred and twenty feet, and hence require a foundation near the surface. This is supplied by submarine mountains and plateaus, or the slopes of those volcanic cones which form the high islands.

Growing vertically, the reefs repeat at the surface the outlines of their bases, which fact gives rise to the circular figure both of atolls and reefs in mid-ocean, and to the elongated, wall-like form of reefs adjacent to the continents, like those of Florida and of Australia.

DISTRIBUTION OF CORALS

Reef-building polyps are confined to the tropical seas, where the winter temperature is not below sixty-eight degrees. Coral formations are most extensive in the Pacific Ocean, especially south of the Equator, and in the two great archipelagoes of the East and West Indies; but a large number of coral islands also occur in the Indian Ocean. The Coral Sea, east of northern Australia, is particularly remarkable for the great extent of its coral reefs.

THE ATOLL FORM OF ISLAND

The usual form of coral islands is that of a broken ring, numerous channels affording entrance into the lagoon. Such a group of islands is called an atoll, a Malay term, which has been adopted to designate these singular structures. The central lagoon enclosed by an atoll, is invariably shallow, seldom exceeding a few scores, or at most hundreds, of feet in depth; while the outer sea reaches a depth of thousands of feet at a short distance from the shore, showing that the atoll rests upon a submarine mountain.

Atolls are often clustered together in large numbers, forming extensive archipelagoes. Paumotu, or Low Archipelago, numbers eighty coral islands, nearly all of which are atolls; the Caroline, Gilbert and Marshall islands together contain eighty-four atolls, while the Laccadive and Maldive islands form two long double series of atolls extending eight hundred miles from north to south.

[Illustration: =MAP SHOWING COMPARATIVE SIZE OF ISLANDS=

(See next page for the Area, Population and Countries to which these islands belong).

=ISLANDS OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE=]

=MOST NOTED ISLANDS OF THE WORLD--WESTERN HEMISPHERE=

-------------------------------------------+--------+---------- | =Area | =Popula- =Name and Sovereignty= | Square | tion= | Miles= | -------------------------------------------+--------+---------- =Anticosti= (to Britain) | 2,600 | 500 =Bahamas= (to Britain) | 4,404 | 58,000 =Bermudas= (to Britain) | 20 | 20,000 =Cape Breton= (to Britain) | 3,120 | 100,000 =Cuba= (Independent) | 44,164 | 2,155,000 =Dominica= (to Britain) | 291 | 35,000 =Falkland= (to Britain) | 5,500 | 3,250 =Feeji, or Feejee= (to Britain) | 7,435 | 155,000 =Galapagos= (to Ecuador) | 2,400 | 400 =Greenland= (to Denmark) | 46,740 | 15,000 =Guadeloupe= (to France) | 688 | 182,000 =Hawaiian= See Sandwich. | | =Isla de Pinos= (Isle of Pines) (to Spain) | 1,200 | 32,000 =Jamaica= (to Britain) | 4,200 | 865,000 =Long Island= (to U. S.) | 1,682 | 2,700,000 =Martinique= (to France) | 378 | 180,000 =New Foundland= (to Britain) | 42,734 | 218,000 =Porto Rico= (to U. S.) | 3,604 | 1,120,000 =Prince Edward= (to Britain) | 2,184 | 94,000 =Santo Domingo= (Independent) | 28,250 | 2,700,000 =Sandwich or Hawaiian= (to U. S.) | 6,449 | 192,000 =Staten Island= (to U. S.) | 65 | 86,000 =Tahiti= (to France) | 1,500 | 30,000 =Tierra del Fuego= (to Argentina) | 18,500 | 1,700 =Trinidad= (to Britain) | 1,750 | 350,000 =Vancouver= (to Britain) | 15,937 | 55,000 -------------------------------------------+--------+----------

[Illustration: =MAP SHOWING COMPARATIVE SIZE OF ISLANDS=

=ISLANDS OF EASTERN HEMISPHERE=]

=MOST NOTED ISLANDS OF THE WORLD--EASTERN HEMISPHERE=

-------------------------------------------+--------+---------- | =Area | =Popula- =Name and Sovereignty= | Square | tion= | Miles= | -------------------------------------------+--------+---------- =Balearic Islands= (to Spain) | 1,935 | 326,000 =Borneo= (to Britain and Holland) |284,000 | 2,000,000 =Canary Islands= (to Spain) | 2,807 | 420,000 =Candia, or Crete= (to Turkey) | 3,365 | 243,000 =Cape Verde Islands= (to Portugal) | 1,480 | 148,000 =Celebes= (to Holland) | 71,470 | 2,000,000 =Ceylon= (to Britain) | 25,332 | 3,595,000 =Corsica= (to France) | 3,378 | 290,000 =Cyprus= (to Britain) | 3,584 | 140,000 =Elba= (to Italy) | 85 | 27,000 =England= (Independent) | 88,729 |40,835,000 =Formosa= (to Japan) | 13,458 | 3,392,000 =Gothland= (to Sweden) | 1,217 | 56,000 =Hainan= (to China) | 16,000 | 2,000,000 =Iceland= (to Denmark) | 39,756 | 86,000 =Ireland= (to Britain) | 32,360 | 4,382,000 {Honshiu | 87,485 |37,415,000 =Japan= {Khiushiu | 16,840 | 7,727,000 {Skikoku | 7,031 | 3,290,000 {Hokkaido (Yezo) | 36,299 | 1,140,000 =Java= (to Holland) | 50,554 |30,100,000 =Madagascar= (to France) |227,950 | 2,745,000 =Madeira Islands= (to Portugal) | 314 | 150,600 =Malta= (to Britain) | 117 | 229,000 =New Guinea= See Papua. | | =New Zealand= {N. Island | 44,468 | 564,000 (to Britain) {S. Island | 58,325 | 445,000 =Papua, or New Guinea= (to Britain, | | Germany and Holland) |313,183 | 710,000 {Luzon | 40,969 | 3,800,000 {Mindanao | 36,292 | 500,000 =Philippines= (to U. S.) {Panay | 4,611 | 744,000 {Cebu | 1,762 | 593,000 {Leyte | 2,722 | 358,000 =St. Helena= (to Britain) | 47 | 3,520 =Sakhalin= (Japan and Russia) | 29,000 | 30,000 =Sardinia= (to Italy) | 9,306 | 854,000 =Sicily= (to Italy) | 9,935 | 3,685,000 =Spitzbergen= (to Norway) | 27,000 | ... =Sumatra= (to Holland) |165,000 | 3,200,000 =Van Diemen, or Tasmania= (to Britain) | 26,215 | 197,000 =Zanzibar= (to Britain) | 640 | 115,000 -------------------------------------------+--------+----------

[Illustration: =MARVELS OF THE EARTH’S ROTATION, FORCES AND STRUCTURE=

1. Midnight Sun Within the Arctic Circle. 2. The Geyser At Rest. 3. Picture Diagram of a Section through a Volcano like Vesuvius. 4. The Geyser in Action. 5. Section of the Earth’s Crust across France and Italy.

1. Precambrian or Archaean. 2. Cambrian and Ordovician. 3. Silurian. 4. Carboniferous Limestone. 5. Coal Measures. 6. Permian. 7. Trias. 8. Jurassic. 9. Chalk. 10. Tertiary. 11. Volcanic Rocks. 12. Glacial Deposits. 13. Granite. 14. Gneiss. 15. Schist. 16. Alluvium.]

VOLCANOES, GEYSERS AND EARTHQUAKES

[Illustration: =THE REMARKABLE SUBMARINE VOLCANO OF SANTORIN= (_Săn-to-rē´n_)

In this little Bay of Santorin, enclosed by an island of the same name in the Grecian Archipelago, occurred probably the most remarkable volcanic exhibition known. During an eruption in 1866 flames issued from the sea rising sometimes to a height of twenty-five feet, and a dense column of white smoke mounted to an immense height. Within a few days a new island appeared which gradually became united to the present Santorin.]

CAUSE, STRUCTURE AND LOCATION OF VOLCANOES